Nov. 16-17: Near-Space Balloon Competition

Middle and high school North Dakota students will get real-world experience completing the scientific method while creating STEM experiments that are launched to over 100,000 feet in altitude (over 99 percent of Earth’s atmosphere). Space Studies graduate students manage all launch operations.

The NSBC students release their payloads simultaneously on two balloons. Space Studies students track and recover the payloads, bringing the experiments back to the NSBC students for data analysis. NSBC is a great state-wide program, made possible by UND. Every town has a UND-mentor, guiding them though the milestones. Experiments range from remote sensing, biology, physics, and atmospheric science.

Students will meet at UND for integration night, where they will give presentations, conduct flight readiness reviews, and rotate through interactive stations. The next morning, they will launch their payloads, venture back to UND to operate “Mission Control” where they remotely track, graph altitude charts, and follow along via live streams.

To celebrate NASA’s 60th anniversary, all teams will be developing an experiment that highlights NASA’s goals and achievements from the past 60 years and the spirit of future human spaceflight.

In case of inclement weather, the backup date is Nov 30-Dec 1

Students are taking part from the following cities.

New Town Middle School (with mentorship by Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College students)